Chocolate Films produces documentaries and promotional films for charities, public sector bodies, and arts organisations including Tate Britain, Tate Modern, BBC, British Film Institute, Rathbones Charity and St. Basil’s Homeless charity. In addition, they also run community and education programs on social issues such as street violence for young disadvantaged individuals.
 

East England Schools is a franchisee of 4myschools, which has developed a unique social enterprise supply teacher agency model for primary and secondary schools.

East Lancashire Moneyline is a not-for-profit Industrial & Provident Society established in 2002 in Blackburn, providing unsecured microfinance loans to customers unable to access mainstream credit markets.

The Brigade is the new restaurant, bar, private dining and events space in the historic Fire Station building in More London. It is a unique collaboration between PwC, De Vere Venues, The Beyond Food Foundation and the Homes and Communities Agency that will provide new training and employment opportunities for people at risk of homelessness.

For further information and a video of the programme go to http://www.beyondfoodfoundation.org.uk/

Housing Action is registered charity established in 1987 with the aim of supporting and housing both individuals and families most in need. Housing Action offers a link and supporting network for those most in need of housing and those with the ability to provide housing stock through the private sector.

Active Life is a community-owned leisure centre in Canterbury that provides affordable sports and recreation to the community. BII provided a loan to upgrade its facilities.

Barnardos, a leading children’s charity, used investment from BII to set-up social enterprises with the surpluses used to support its work to free children’s lives from poverty, abuse and discrimination. Three social enterprises were launched: conferences, training & consultancy services for children’s services professionals, and specialist insurance. All are successful and Barnados has fully repaid its loan.

Belu is the first carbon neutral, bottled water company in the UK. It uses compostable bottles made from corn and invests all surpluses in clean water projects. BII was one of Belu’s earliest investors. The company has seen steady growth and can now be found in leading supermarkets, high-end restaurants and corporate boardrooms. Reed Paget, Belu’s CEO, won The Independent’s 2008 Social Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Cool2Care is a childcare introductory service that recruits, screens and trains care-workers (Personal Assistants, PAs), bringing together families with disabled children or young adults and people who want to work caring for them. 

The East Lancashire Deaf Society based in Blackburn bought a listed building and have refurbished it to create a modern business centre offering office accommodation and conference facilities. The vision behind this project was to provide employment opportunities for Deaf people and also to combat social exclusion of Deaf people. Along with this, Kings Court will provide ELDS with income which can be used for existing projects such as Community Development and Family Support Services.
 

Digartref Ynys Mon in Anglesey supports vulnerable young people between 16 and 25 years to develop skills in their training centre. BII financed refurbishment of their accommodation for young people who may have been affected by housing issues.

Fifteen Foundation, founded by Jamie Oliver, provides training for disadvantaged young people in the restaurant industry. BII financed the expansion of Fifteen’s operations during its early days. Fifteen has succeeded in giving young people a transition opportunity to a good career – latest figures show that 75% were still chefing or working in another part of the food industry.

Folkestone Sports Centre Trust Limited, based in Kent, strives to improve the health and welfare of its local community, providing affordable sports and fitness facilities to low income residents and access to physical fitness programmes for individuals with health issues. Big Issue Invest provided a loan as part of a major refurbishment project for the facility, funding the cost of a new roof, which is not only the first step in the renovation programme but also in the transformation of the business to a more self-sustaining future.

4 Children, is a national charity centred around children and families with a proven track record in shaping and influencing national policy, and developing and delivering a wide range of innovative children services throughout the country. BII provided finance to expand their children’s centres.

Hackney Community Transport (HCT) is a fast-growing, award-winning Community Interest Company providing public transport that creates employment and training opportunities, as well as transport services for the elderly, children and people with disabilities. BII has financed HCT since 2006. Most recently it provided bridging finance for HCT to win a £3.5 million publicly tendered contract to deliver bus transport to a major London client and provide employment for the long-term unemployed as drivers.

Mow & Grow is an award winning social enterprise which uses its innovative gardening business as a means to train and employ individuals that might historically have found sustainable employment difficult to obtain due to their backgrounds. Based in the country's most deprived wards, Mow & Grow are leading the way to help civil renewal in the surrounding areas. BII has stepped in to help Mow & Grow with a loan to support cash flow and capital expenditure to build capacity to deliver a £5 million contract with the DWP.

My Time CIC, is a service user led mental health counselling service whose staff support 600 people
in 22 languages. BII is investing in its replication.

Pathfinder Healthcare Developments (CIC) is an innovative provider of extended primary care services, specialising in the needs of inner city multiracial populations. BII is financing the roll-out of the redesign of its extended preventative health care service in Birmingham which is anticipated to transform health service delivery.

Pines Calyx is an eco conference centre and events venue in Dover which has used state of the art low carbon, sustainable building and maintenance techniques. BII provided a loan which allowed completion of the project. In 2007, the design team won the prestigious Sustainable City Awards for excellence in sustainable building design.

Pontin Charitable Trust is an Environmental Charity making loans to environmental social enterprises in the South West.

Positive Support in Tees is a young, fast growing organisation that supports, enables and empowers people with disabilities to have fulfilled lives and be participants in the community.
 

RMS Rail, part of Ealing Community Transport (ECT) one of the UK’s leading social enterprises, received a loan from BII to purchase shunting engines and develop the infrastructure of two community railway lines. ECT has since been successful at finding commercial partners to scale-up both its rail and recycling operations.

SCA Healthcare is part of the SCA Group, whose mission is to improve people’s lives by providing innovative health and social care services. With a staff team of over 600 persons, it is treating more than 35,000 people. BII provided financing to support SCA's buyout of private dentists and its work with the NHS to provide free dentistry to low-income families on the south coast who have no access to affordable dental care.

Stevenage Citizens Advice Bureau won a Contract from the Legal Services Commission to provide a debt and legal counselling help line nationwide. BII financed the working capital requirements for successful contract delivery.

Thorpete provides gas installation and maintenance services, mainly for Housing Associations. It trains and employs long term unemployed young people in the East Midlands. BII financed the upgrade of its customer service IT system to improve the quality of its service.

Turning Point, led by Lord Victor Adebowale, is one of the UK’s leading social care organisations. BII financed the start-up of Connected Care, a new model of public service delivery, which integrates health, social care and housing services to meet the needs of low-income people in the most deprived areas of England and Wales, with the community playing a central role in the design and delivery of those services.

Venture Partnership Foundation (VPF) is a mutual organisation founded by private equity and venture capital professionals which provides grant funding, social investment and professional support to scale up the trading arms of charities. BII has provided investment capital to VPF. So far two investments have been made in:

Charity Technology Trust, is a commercially run, IT systems integration business that takes pro-bono or discounted products and services from the IT sector and packages them into value standard product offerings for charities with the aim of improving the quality and efficiency of their operations.

Training for Life, led by Gordon da Silva, twice awarded Social Entrepreneur of the Year (London), helps long term unemployed return to work through entrepreneurial endeavour within small businesses such as restaurants, gymns and training centres. Known principally for its gastronomically acclaimed work at the Hoxton Apprentice, BII provided assistance to expand it operations to Dartmouth.